Page 22 of April’s Fool

“You said you wouldn’t . . .”

“I said I’d give you time and that I’m patient, but that doesn’t mean I won’t do what I have to do to keep you safe.”

April opens and closes her mouth several times before letting out a huff in the back of her throat that sounds cute as hell. “You could have told me you were on campus,” she finally mutters.

“Yeah, but then you’d know I was watching, and you might not have acted like yourself.” That’s a lie, and I know it. “Honestly, if you knew I was there, I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from sticking to the shadows. I’d have been right next to you, walking you to every class you went to. Seeing all those piss-ant polo-wearing dickheads talking to you pissed me the hell off.”

“Piss-ant polo-wearing dickheads?” She smirks, shaking her head.

“That’s exactly what they are,” I grunt, sliding a hand into her hair. “Next week, when you’re back in class, I’ll still be there, but I won’t be hiding in the shadows. I want them to see me, to know that you’ve got someone at your back. That they can’t keep fucking with you.”

“How do you know it’s them messing with me?” she asks, losing her smirk, eyes searing into mine as if she were trying to see into my very soul.

“After a week of watching, I’ve learned which ones are which without you telling me a damn thing. What I’ve figured out on my own has me livid, and I don’t even have the full story.”

“I didn’t want anyone to know what was going on.” April drops her head, forehead resting against my chest.

“Talk to me, sweets,” I murmur against the top of her head.

“It started last year,” she utters, sucking in a breath.

I round the edge of my bed, bringing her with me, and drop onto it, again pulling her along and tucking her into my side.

“What started last year?”

April curls into my side, grips my shirt in her fist, and starts her story. “Last year, I started hanging out with a guy named Samuel. He’s on the lacrosse team and was in several of my classes. He started coming to study groups I used to be a part of. He sat next to me and asked me out for coffee a few times. I told him I wasn’t really interested in dating, but we could go as friends.”

She takes a second before continuing. “Everything seemed fine. We were friends, and I even went to a party with him. He handed me a drink, and well, I didn’t drink it. Twister and Horse made sure to drill that into our heads during high school. If you’re not the one to get it yourself, don’t drink it. If you take your eyes off it, don’t drink it. He thought I did, but I hadn’t touched it. He tried to get me into a room with him and his friends, and that didn’t go over well. So, for the last year, they’ve been making my life hell.”

The more she talks about what happens to her, the more I want to find the fucker and beat the hell out of him. No, I want to put him in the ground for all the shit he’s put her through.

“They take turns calling, messaging, and sending me things. Thanks to this day and age, you can create a lot of pictures just by using AI. Which, by the way, I hate AI and refuse to use anything that could be harmful to others.”

“Right there with you on that, sweets,” I grumble, barely containing the anger rising in me on her behalf. “What kind of things are they sending you?”

“Generated pictures of me.”

Fuckers are dead men walking.

“Samuel’s friends are the ones who send those. He mostly sticks to the calls or messing with me in class. He’ll make provocative suggestions or do the weird breathing BS until I call him out on it. I’ve tried blocking his number, but he just calls me from another number.”

“I don’t want you to have to worry about them again,” I tell her, pulling her closer to me.

“You can’t stop them from using words or creating things and putting them out there for other people to see. More times than I can count over the past year, random guys asking for a hookup have approached me, thinking I’ll sleep with them for money.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I thought I had it figured out, but it’s worse than I thought. They weren’t just fucking with her head. They’re putting her in situations that could end up hurting her, and that shit ain’t gonna continue. Not if I can help it.

April says nothing else, and I’m not sure what to say to make her feel better, so I just hold her close. Eventually, she drifts off to sleep, and I keep holding her, plotting the deaths of those who targeted her and made her life a living nightmare.

After a while of holding her, I inch her under the covers and tuck one of my pillows close. I’ve got to talk to my brothers about this. Something has to be done to stop them, and I’m going to make sure they hurt in the worst way.

Leaving my room, I head in search of my brothers and find them all still downstairs. Thankfully, Venus has her mouth preoccupied with Zero’s dick.

I shake my head and plop back into the chair I’d left just a moment ago, looking around the table and meeting each of their eyes.

“How bad is it?” Hazard asks first.